Dunes on the great lakes are not unique to Indiana. Dunes more or less encircled the great lakes to some extent. Chicago for sure was home to dunes just as grand and extensive as those that we only see in designated parks like in Indiana. The entirety of Chicago’s dunes though, were bulldozed for development at some point or another. Nearly all, if not all, of the beaches currently lining the lake shore of Chicago are reconstructed, not natural. Under Daniel Burnham’s plan, the entire Chicago lake front should be parkland and that plan for the most part became reality. I suppose it was only a matter of time before this designation would extend to the restoration of former inhabitants. All across the city many parks now have areas set aside for restoration projects and some parks are solely devoted to that. The municipal beaches are no less subject to this trend. In this blog post I’ll describe my one day trip to three dune habitats on the south side of Chicago: Rainbow Beach, South Shore Cultural Center, and 63rd st. beach.
My first reaction when I dismounted my bike and walked onto Rainbow beach was, “I think I’ve been here before.” Well regardless of whether I have or not it was a welcome sight. The area set aside for the restoration project was covered in Marram grass (Ammophila breviligulata). At first most of what I saw was Marram but as I proceeded farther from the civilian beach eventually the Marram started to give way to other species such as goldenrod (Solidago sp.), prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa), a couple young trees and, shown below, Sand Cress (Arabis lyrata).
This leads me to believe the area granted for restoration purposes has gradually expanded further down the beach since the biota closer to the civilian beach were very early succession verses the still early but slightly later succession biota I encountered near the end of the beach. Bird life was sparse though this understandable as there wasn’t enough in the way of later succession shrubs to host them. I did see though a few Swamp Sparrows (Melospiza georgiana) and Rough-winged Swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis). On the beach I was able to spot a Solitary sandpiper (Tringa solitaria) snooping around some rocks along with the standard Ring-billed Gulls on any city beach. I also spotted several Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia) and managed to pick out a Forster’s Tern (Sterna forsteri)!
The only point of criticism I noticed is that throughout the beach there were stumps of cottonwoods (Populus americana). While it is a tree that needs to be checked every now and then due to its weedy nature, their complete eradication from this area meant that no dunes could form and the whole project will remain a flat beach until they return and are given time to work their dune creating magic. All things told I think this beach has excellent potential and with some consistent stewardship it is capable of attaining the highest level of ecological diversity possible a municipal beach.To Be Continued
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